No helmet worn in two-thirds of Iowa motorcycle fatalities in 2014

Seth Shepard didn't exactly walk away from a recent motorcycle crash, but he did survive.

A school bus illegally turned in front of Shepard, 37, of La Porte City, according to the Black Hawk County Sheriff's Office. Shepard swerved to avoid the bus, the bike slid to the edge of the road, and he was thrown 10 feet into a ditch, according to Deputy Tony Meyer, who responded to the crash on Canfield Road.

'From the looks of the helmet - it's scratched up on all sides - it saved my life,” said Shepard, who said he's recovering with a broken arm and possibly other injuries. 'I went head-over-heels. That basically protected my head. Otherwise it would have been my head on the ground.”

Iowa is one of three states that don't require motorcycle helmets, and some argue a law is needed so there are more cases like Shepard's and fewer like a fatal crash in Keokuk County last week.

On Wednesday, a passenger on a motorcycle died after the motorcycle collided with a semi. The motorcycle driver was airlifted to the hospital with incapacitating injuries. Neither was wearing a helmet, according to Iowa State Patrol crash reports.

While it's difficult to say a helmet would have prevented tragedy in the Keokuk County crash, studies from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have estimated there would be 37 percent fewer motorcycle fatalities if all motorcyclists wore helmets.

Another NHTSA study said crash victims wearing helmets are 'significantly less likely to suffer traumatic brain injury.”

Deputy Meyer said Shepard's crash could have been much worse without a helmet. He said he's responded to numerous fatal motorcycle crashes in which the driver wasn't wearing a helmet, and in some cases it could have made a difference.

Phil McCormick, state coordinator for ABATE of Iowa, one of the strongest voices against a helmet law, said helmets won't help in some crashes.

'I'm sure there's some of them that would have been (saved),” McCormick said. 'But some, with blunt force trauma or if you get run over by a semi, a helmet is not going to save your life.”

Through the end of May, the victims in seven of the 10 motorcycle fatalities in Iowa this year were not wearing a helmet, according to data from the Iowa Department of Transportation Office of Driver Services and Iowa State Patrol reports.

It's not a new trend.

From 2008 to last year, a helmet was not used in 82 percent or 240 of the 291 motorcycle fatalities, and 72 percent or 1,042 of 1,457 crashes with incapacitating injuries, according to the Iowa DOT Office of Traffic and Safety.

Iowa has one of the highest rates in the nation for motorcycle deaths in which a helmet wasn't worn, according to NHTSA.

However, by some measures, it doesn't appear motorcyclists are dying at a greater rate in Iowa. According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, the national fatality rate climbed from 1.12 deaths per 100,000 people in 2001 to 1.74 in 2008. According to DOT data, Iowa's rate climbed from 1.27 to 1.72 in that same time frame.

The rate of motorcycle fatalities per registrations in Iowa actually is below the national average, when comparing data from the Iowa DOT and the CDC.

Geoffrey Lauer, executive director of the Brain Injury Alliance of Iowa, which supports a helmet law, said it is hard to compare data state-to-state. In Iowa, for example, the expansive road system with long, flat straightaways and a condensed riding season because of winter may reduce crashes.

'The data is conclusive that motorcycle helmets dramatically reduce the risk of death and disability from motorcycle crashes,” Lauer said.

Bill Olin, 90, of Iowa City, has been advocating for a helmet law for 30 years. He said it is time to pass a helmet law.

'I don't want to pay for their injuries,” Olin said. 'Our health care is high enough as it is without having to pay every time some(one) has a crash. I've seen kids who are vegetables because they didn't wear a helmet.”

Olin's son spent six months in a hospital after a motorcycle crash, but a helmet saved his life, he said.

Iowa had a universal helmet law requiring helmets for all riders until it was repealed in 1976, according to the Governor's Highway Safety Association.

Iowa, New Hampshire and Illinois are the only states with no helmet law.

Universal helmet laws requiring everyone to wear a helmet exist in 19 states, and 28 states have helmet laws for specific riders, typically based on age.

Attempts to create a helmet law in Iowa have been thwarted, including when West High students lobbied legislators to pass a helmet law after their friend Caroline Found, 17, died in a moped crash in 2011. She was not wearing a helmet.

ABATE's McCormick said his group has to work to protect against a helmet law each year, and he expects that to continue.

McCormick said it's a freedom of choice issue, as well as an issue of educating the public to be more aware of motorcyclists and to provide more training so motorcyclists can be better drivers.

'It should be an adult's choice to wear a helmet,” McCormick said. 'The government's been feeling the need to take our rights away, one choice at a time. Any time someone stubs a toe, we have a new rule. We need education, not to pass all these new laws.”